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Tings are unraveling in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that seems, here more than ever, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the hands of mobs. "An element is at work, stealthily, gradually", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and durable are faltering and collapsing."

Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey

Just what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which continues where the previous book ended. This is, according to many, the author's concluding venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating universe he first introduced three decades past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are paired by external spirits, beings in beast form; where the air are populated with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, buses are caught and tea is consumed, and middle-aged professors carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still clearly the sharp and tenacious main character of the previous installments, but older, melancholic, warier, less sure. This restraint is amplified by her separation from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

Pan's decision to leave in pursuit of that youthful part of her which she appears to have shed (an quality which he represents as her "imagination"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of austere, administrative malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who blames her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of president of the authority's governing body, and is determined on using his fresh authority to broaden the church's rule. Another protagonist, who saved baby Lyra to security along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in espionage: he is sent to a key location to discover more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and precious botanical extract which appears somehow to be the origin of a societal and financial crisis emanating out from the region. The extract is viewed by some as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of evil; an insult that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.

Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be inextricably linked with the future of the universe

In the previous volume, these storylines ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they converge. Similar to the original series, Lyra's movements and her fate are shown to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her personal journey to reunite with her daemon and recover her imagination becomes the central battleground in a broader battle with an oppressive regime which, as such authorities always have, is striving to suppress freedom of thinking, creativity and art: all the internal, rebellious ways in which humans can be free.

Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts

The book opens with the discovery of a set of unusual cracks in the fabric of the planet's air: portals that seem to give on to other worlds. An example of a portal seems to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these openings as a problem to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict reason and return to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be defended – that what they stand for and their value is in some way crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a Blakean conflict between purity and knowledge is prepared.

Plot Rhythm and Character Development

At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the